Web Development

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How much about webdesign do i need to learn before a job

I am 17 year old highschool junior who is learning web development in hopes to be able to learn enough by college to start hiring out my services in order to help pay for college. Currently I've learned and and worked with XHTML,CSS,PHP,and MySQL Databases.I've Developed a website for the camp my Dad works at, and am working on two others for churches I and my brother attend. How much do I need to learn in the present languages I know and what other languages should I learn before I start looking for a job.

All Comments

Well you've made a decent start

skills wise, if you can do PHP/Mysql then you can do PHP and any other database, with google and how do I questions. If you know PHP, then ASP or JSP should not casue you any conceptual problems either. Learning some of the standard devlopment environments such as visual studio or the macro media stuff might tax you financially. ActiveX, Java & .NET won't hurt you in the market place either. But your best adverts for getting further work is n't your skillset, which you can add to as you go along, it's the sites you've already done.

Even if it's for free keep doing them and put the urls on your cv. See if your local business's, community groups etc want a page alot of them will have unused web space. Build up a portfolio and refer to them with what you used and what the main aim of the site was. Sell yourself, not your skill set. In five years time much of that will be obsolete anyway, you don't have to be though.

If you coded the PHP/MySQL yourself

I agree with Tony's comments PROVIDED you coded the PHP/MySQL yourself and did not just install one of the many CMS systems (PHPNuke, PostNuke, PHPWebsite, etc) and customize it.Just customizing existing code by using one of the prefab packages is a long way from actually coding in PHP and designing a database in MySQL.There are some great online resources for learning the basics of different web languages. My first recommendation would be http://www.w3schools.com/default.aspKeep after it. For a 17 year old, you are already on the right track just by doing it and learning hands on.

Don't worry about languages

ASP/JSP/PHP VB Swahili whateverOpen a db connectionOpen a query/table.loop present the dataUntil no more recordsClose queryClose connectionThat's it, doesn't matter what the language is. By all means pick up the other ones but remember already know what to say, all you need is a dictionary to translate it.Some languages, it will be easier to say, or use less words, nothing else to it.Stick at it, Enable IIS and .Net framework on an XP system and have a play.Or get Perl going, you can start out simple and get to wonderfully elegant, you can even do OO with it.If you've got a linux box, start having a look at programming, you can get almost any compiler Pascal or C would be a good start, then ObjectiveC, C++ or Kylix for the OO. Seeing as you know web stuff use them to create web pages (see CGI). Above all have fun, I started in 1977, still having a laugh now and people pay me for it.

Also...

Don't forget the web scripting languages as well as layout. You will also need to learn about Graphical User Interface (GUI) and how to do search engine optimatization. SEO is also a skillset that take time to learn. And while you are at it, you might want to learn more about e-commerce. This is the biggest thing on the horizon now.

skills

It sounds like you have a lot of technical skills in your arsenal. Typically, people with strong technical skills you seem to have work with both clients and web designers. More often than not, the person who writes the scripts or builds the databases is not the best web designer. For small jobs and freebies, it may be the same person, but for large projects, you will be working with others. My suggestion is to continue to develop your teamwork and people skills. These can make the difference between being talented and being talented AND successful.

Design Maybe!

I understand you have some serious development skills but it is important to learn the two sides of the coin. Take a look a csszengarden.com for some great design(and some really bad design!).

Your skills seem to be more than sufficient and i'm sure if you needed more skills then you would pick them up quite quickly but good design is more difficult to learn( if it can be learned just like that?!?!).

Design and Usability

Sounds like you are definitely on the right track. As noted in some replies, designing the actual look and feel of the website is the most critical part and you should spend time learning about design, usability, accessibility, and graphic editing. If you have a great backend but an atrocious frontend, you have nothing.

You need more than languages

Good start but you should also be looking at:1) "Requirements" to be able to evaluate what you are being ask to implement. "SCRUB" etc...2) Enough about "Database Modeling" to be able to build a good database for small project and/or recognize problems in the database model that you are using if you are not the one doing the design. Normalization, etc...

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